Erich von Manstein

Erich von Manstein (24 November 1887-9 June 1973) was a Field Marshal of Nazi Germany during World War II. From 21 November 1942 to 12 February 1943 he led the short-lived Army Group Don on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union before leading Army Group South from then to March 1944, but his criticism of Adolf Hitler's leadership and tactics led to his dismissal.

Biography
Erich von Manstein was born on 24 November 1887 in Berlin as Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Lewinski to a father of noble Kashubian Polish ancestry. He was adopted by his aunt Hedwig von Sperling and her husband Georg von Manstein due their inability to have children, and he took on the last name "Manstein" as his own. In 1913, Manstein was forced to leave the Prussian War Academy due to the start of World War I, and he served on both the Western and Eastern Fronts; he would never finish his training as an officer.

After the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Manstein became an officer in the Weimar Republic's Reichswehr. He became a Major-General of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht in October 1936 and became Germany's strategist in the early stages of World War II. Manstein planned the offensive through the Ardennes that helped in the overrunning of France, and his "sickle stroke" plan was key in the decisive German victory at the Battle of France. In 1941, Manstein led the LVI Panzer Corps in Operation Barbarossa, and he led the German 11th Army during the Siege of Sevastopol and the other actions in the southern Soviet Union into 1942. While in Crimea, he was accused of massacring prisoners-of-war and Jews, and he allowed for Einsatzgruppe D to carry out mass executions while ignoring some of his officers' pleas to halt the killings. On 21 November of that year, he was given command of Army Group Don during the Battle of Stalingrad and the Third Battle of Kharkov. As the Germans retreated after Kharkov, the Battle of Kursk, and the other Soviet counteroffensives in late 1943 and early 1944, Manstein led masterful retreats despite many defeats. In March 1944, Fuhrer Adolf Hitler dismissed him after arguing with him over army strategies, and he was taken prisoner by the British Army at the end of the war. Initially sentenced to 18 years in prison, he was released in 1953 after only eight years and died in 1973 in Irschenhausen, Bavaria, West Germany.